Thursday, August 09, 2007

Baby Names...

My kids don't have "usual" names. I fully appreciate a bit of creativity, originality and personal identity in a name. I am completely against juniors (unless you're a Vanderbilt or a Hilton I guess...). All that being said, there is a line between a unique name and a call for other kids to beat up your child and steal their lunch money.

I wanted to keep a list of some of the names I encountered while I was subbing this past year. Good God. There's always the kid with the name that is just shy of every letter in the alphabet that gets indignant when you inevitably mispronounce it (because it's not even a word let alone a name).

Then there are the celebrities that obviously think money will absolve teasing. As evidenced by Jermaine Jackson's child Jermajesty. Still the best (as in worst) Hollywood name to date in my opinion.

We had the educational story of the parents that were fighting the Swedish government to name their child Metallica. Note to those parents: I almost got David Lee Roth tattooed on me at 16 --and look at him now... I say educational because up until that point I had no idea there were governments that regulated what you named your own child. Though, maybe that should be the case in California.

Now, we have another couple fighting another government over the name they've chosen for their precious bundle of joy. Their first name, 4Real (they should have put a question mark after it) was summarily shot down by the New Zealand government registry and now the couple is lobbying for Superman.

"Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported.

The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realizing their baby was “for real.” (source)

This will be one soul that thanks God every day he wasn't born here in the land of the free.